Railway rolling stock manufacturing · reference card
Thermal and process records for every weld on car bodies, underframes and bogies: what they show, how a one-cell pilot runs and what goes into the EN 15085 file.
Rolling stock combines automotive-like volumes on the car body with structural-style multi-pass welding on underframes and bogies, and its welding file has to answer questions for decades. A record made while each weld runs answers them for every weld in scope, not only for the sampled ones.
The welding monitoring system page compares the HeatCore tiers.
Start with one cell and one joint family, typically where failure costs most and sampling covers least, such as high weld performance classes on bogie frames. Fix scope, reference and false-alarm counting first, using the pilot acceptance checklist.
Monitoring does not replace required inspection. It joins procedure, welder or program, process record and inspection result under one identifier. See EN 15085-3 for performance classes and the certification guide for what auditors check.
| Code | Why it applies |
|---|---|
| EN 15085 series | Welding of railway vehicles and components: manufacturer certification levels tied to consequence of failure. |
| EN 15085-3 | Assigns each joint a weld performance class (CP A to CP D), which sets certification level and inspection. |
| ISO 3834-2 | The comprehensive ISO 3834 part EN 15085-2 requires at the higher certification levels. |
| ISO 5817 | The quality levels EN 15085's imperfection classes draw on for fusion-welded steel. |
| Pain point | Consequence | Signal that sees it |
|---|---|---|
| Certification level follows the consequence of a joint's failure, not the process | One shop can hold different levels on different components, and evidence has to match each. | Process evidence tagged to the weld performance class as the weld is made. |
| Multi-pass underframe and bogie welds depend on interpass temperature and cooling recorded on paper after the fact | A retrospective check-sheet cannot show the joint stayed inside the procedure between passes. | Thermal record of every pass, with interpass temperature and cooling time per joint. |
| Aluminium car-body panels are laser welded with little visible margin, and spot welds number in the thousands | Sampling covers a small fraction of the welds an audit or a fatigue investigation must account for. | Cooling signature and electrical record on every seam and spot, not a sampled subset. |
| A vehicle's welding record must be reconstructable years later | An in-service investigation finds gaps where records were never joined. | Weld identifier, station and process record joined automatically and retained. |
No. It requires a certified manufacturer, qualified procedures and personnel, inspection and documentation. Per-weld monitoring produces the process evidence behind that documentation.
Yes. HeatCore Basic suits manual and semi-automated stations, HeatCore AI retrofits robotic cells; mounting and integration are confirmed per cell.
With a pilot on one cell and one joint family, acceptance criteria fixed beforehand, and scaling only once they are met.
Therness measures what happens while the arc is running — parameters, thermal signature, per-weld records — so the problems on this page surface on the shift that made them.
Progetto cofinanziato nell'ambito del PR Piemonte FSE+ 2021-2027,
Priorità I, Obiettivo Specifico a), Azione 4 – "Sostegno alla nascita delle start up"
